Explain the meaning and purpose of this sentence: "it was testimony to the romantic speculation he inspired that there were whispers about him from those who had found little that it was necessary to whisper about in this world."

The meaning of this sentence is that even people who didn't think many things were worth gossiping about thought that he was worth gossiping about. The purpose of this was to show how effective his persona was and how much attention he received by inspiring this 'romantic speculation'.